Sustainability Projects

Sustainable Cities of Northern Europe (SCONE)

During Summer 2018 and Summer 2019, I served as the Onsite Coordinator for the University of California - Davis Sustainable Cities of Northern Europe (SCONE) summer immersion program. For 1 month over the summer, a group of 26 students, a professor, and myself traveled throughout Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland studying different aspects of sustainability. Topics included agricultural and food systems, building and material design, urban cores, retrofitting, stormwater management, alternate green transit systems, centralize district heating systems, wind power generation, biofuel digesters, and urban park and recreation systems. During Summer 2019 I also gave a guest lecture on sustainability, water quality, and climate change in Denmark.

As part of these programs, I helped to develop course content, excursions, and class assignments. My research related to the SCONE program involves studying knowledge transfer from study abroad programs back to the United States.

The Next Generation of Sustainable Communities

Between 2019 and 2020, I coordinated The Next Generation of Sustainable Communities Symposium held at the University of California - Davis. This symposium was supported by the University of California Davis Arab Region Consortium and co-PIs, Dr. Suad Joseph, Distinguished Research Professor of Anthropology and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies and Dr. Bryan Jenkins, Professor and Chair of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. Other planning committee members included Dr. Stephen Wheeler, Professor of Landscape Architecture; Bernadette Austin, Acting Director of the Center for Regional Change, and Nermin Dessouky, PhD Candidate in Geography.

The symposium was a one-day event held on January 24, 2020 that brought together public and private sectors, as well as academics and nongovernmental organizations to discuss experiences, best practices, challenges, and the “next phase” of sustainable communities. The symposium also featured Karim El-Jisr and Faris Saeed, who designed and developed The Sustainable City in Dubai as well as Tim Rogmans, Professor at Zayed University.

I am currently involved in ongoing research related to this conference.